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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Efforts associated with the yearlong Safer Highways Statewide grant will continue through Sept. 30, 2021.
The Safer Highways Statewide grant provides the CHP with funding to conduct additional driving under the influence saturation patrols, DUI checkpoints and traffic safety education efforts throughout the state.
Additionally, the CHP will participate in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over campaign.
“DUI is the result of poor decision-making, and too often, it has tragic consequences,” said CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley. “If you drive while impaired, you could be arrested, or worse, involved in a crash.”
In 2018, there were 566 deaths and 11,298 injuries associated with DUI crashes within the CHP’s jurisdiction.
Each one of these injuries and deaths represents a preventable tragedy and a continued need to focus efforts on reducing impaired driving, the CHP said.
The CHP reminds the public, “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.”
Alcohol, cannabis, prescription medications, illegal drugs, or any combination of these, can impair your ability to drive and will result in an arrest if you are under the influence.
Always designate a sober driver, take public transportation, or call a taxi or a ride-share service. There is always a better option than getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety, through National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
PG&E turned off the power to 345,000 customers in 34 counties due to red flag warning conditions, with strong winds reported across much of the state.
The area for the public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, includes Lake County, where 21,621 customers – 1,573 in the medical baseline program – are impacted.
During a 6 p.m. Monday evening briefing, PG&E said the all-clear had been called in many of the impacted counties and it had restored power to 95,000 customers and was expecting to have the remaining 250,000 customers reenergized by 10 p.m. Tuesday.
At 10 p.m. Monday, the company said the number of customers with restored power was up to 156,000.
PG&E told Lake County News later on Monday night that a partial all-clear had been called for Lake County. Shortly before 10:30 p.m. about 5 percent of the county’s customers had their power restored, with the rest to have their power back by Tuesday night.
The company said its address lookup tool includes restoration times.
Preliminary data showed at least 13 instances of weather-related damage and hazards in the PSPS-affected areas. The company said examples include downed lines and vegetation on power lines, which could have caused wildland fires had power lines not been deenergized.
PG&E Senior Meteorologist Scott Strenfel said during the wind event there were high wind speeds recorded around the outage area.
The company said the highest wind gust reported was 89 miles per hour in Sonoma County, where sustained winds topped out at 76 miles per hour.
Lake County had the fourth-highest wind speed for gusts, 71 miles per hour, and the second-highest sustained wind speed, 57 miles per hour.
“This was a very widespread, very strong wind event, the strongest of the season, and it brought in an ultra-dry air mass,” Strenfel said.
Strenfel said he’s seen reports of relative humidity down as low as 3 percent, “which is just absolutely bone dry.” Such low humidity conditions dry out vegetation and make it more susceptible to fire.
A second round of winds is expected on Monday night into Tuesday morning. He said some areas of the North Bay, primarily over elevated terrain like Mount Saint Helena, were starting to see winds picking back up. In The Geysers geothermal steamfield area, he said there were 40-mile-per-hour winds on Monday evening.
Strenfel said a ridge of high pressure from the eastern Pacific is going to build up over California in the coming days. Conditions will be warmer and drier than normal. “We don’t expect any significant rainfall for the next 10 days,” but also no return of significant offshore winds.
Mark Quinlan, PG&E’s incident commander, said that due to running out of daylight, the company’s fleet of 65 helicopters that is uses to patrol equipment for damage before reenergizing lines after shutoff events was being grounded for the night.
However, he said a plane with a high-resolution camera and infrared technology that can fly at night was being deployed to patrol equipment, primarily the transmission system.
At the same time, he said patrols will continue on the ground where it’s safe to do so. The company has 1,800 employees that are working on the ground to look for equipment damage.
PG&E opened 106 community resource centers across the outage area, with 99 of them still open as of Monday night.
Community members can charge medical and personal devices, get snacks and water, and even blankets if necessary.
The centers stayed open until 10 p.m. Monday and will reopen for a full day on Tuesday at 8 a.m., the company said.
In Lake County, all seven community resource centers remain available. They can be found at the following locations:
– Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake.
– Mountain High Coffee, 16295 Highway 175, Cobb.
– Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Red Hills Property, 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville.
– Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport.
– Twin Pine Casino and Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown.
– Community Baptist Church, 2877 State Highway 20, Nice.
– Upper Lake Middle School, 725 Old Lucerne Road.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department said its officers arrested a Clearlake Oaks man wanted in connection to two rapes last week, one of them involving a minor.
Romondis Tyron Thompson, 34, was arrested before noon on Monday following a brief vehicle pursuit, the department reported.
Thompson’s arrest took place less than two hours after the Clearlake Police Department issued a report to the community seeking to locate him.
Police said Thompson, who is on post release community supervision, uses the name “Romeo Thompson” on Facebook and was reported to have been contacting one of the victims and other females.
Leading up to his arrest, Clearlake Police Department Investigations Bureau detectives served a search warrant in connection with the case and obtained additional evidence, police said.
On Monday, shortly after 11 a.m., Thompson – driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen – led Clearlake Police officers on a vehicle chase, the department said.
Police said he then left the vehicle and attempted to flee on foot but was apprehended by officers.
He was booked into the Lake County Jail on Monday evening on two misdemeanors for obstructing or resistant a peace officer and false imprisonment, and 12 felony charges: possession of a stolen vehicle, escaping or attempting to escape custody by force, two counts of taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, evading a peace officer with disregard to safety, sexual intercourse with a minor, sexual penetration with force, rape with the victim incapable of giving consent, oral copulation, false imprisonment with violence, assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm) with great bodily injury likely and rape by force or fear.
Thompson’s booking sheet shows he is due to appear in Lake County Superior Court on Wednesday. His bail was set at $1 million.
Anyone with information about Thompson’s case is asked to contact Det. Leo Flores at 707-994-8251, Extension 315.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Employment Development Department said Lake County’s September unemployment rate was 8.6 percent.
The county’s rate in August was 8.5, 11.7 percent in July, 14.2 percent in June, 15.5 percent in May and 16.7 percent in April. In September 2019, Lake County had a 4-percent jobless rate.
California’s unemployment rate in September was 11 percent, down from 11.2 in August and 3.9 percent the previous September.
The number of Californians holding jobs in September was 16,618,200, an increase of 47,300 jobs from August’s total of 16,570,900, but down 2,082,200 from the employment total in September of last year, the EDD reported.
The state also said that the number of unemployed Californians was 2,058,800 in September, a decrease of 27,900 over the month, but up by 1,300,900 compared with September of last year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the nationwide unemployment rate in September was 7.9 percent, compared to 8.4 percent in August and 3.5 percent in September 2019.
Lake County’s civilian workforce in September rose slightly to 28,680, up from 28,640 in August.
With the summer pear harvest now over, the total farm job category showed a 27.1-percent decrease over the month, with the total nonfarm category up by 1.8 percent since August, according to the EDD’s report.
Total nonfarm’s main subcategories showed the following numbers: Service producing, 1.9 percent; goods producing, 0.8 percent; total private, 0.1 percent growth over the month; and private service producing, -0.1 percent.
Lake County’s statewide jobless ranking for September was No. 30 out of the state’s 58 counties.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks in the latest report are Colusa, 10.6 percent, No. 49; Glenn, 7.3 percent, No. 12; Napa, 7.6 percent, No. 18; Sonoma, 7.2 percent, No. 10; and Yolo, 7.1 percent, No. 7.
The county with the highest jobless rate last month remained Imperial, at 21.5 percent, while Lassen retained its spot at the No. 1 county for employment, with a 6.3-percent rate reported in September.
A look at the state’s employment picture
The state’s payroll jobs totaled 15,982,300 in September 2020, up 96,000 from August 2020 but down from 1,538,900 from September 2019.
September’s unemployment rate of 11.0 percent marked the second consecutive month since March 2020 that California’s unemployment rate was lower than the 12.3 percent mark set during the height of the Great Recession (March, October and November 2010).
The Employment Development Department said California has now regained more than a third of the 2,615,800 nonfarm jobs lost during March and April as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Total nonfarm jobs decreased by 1,488,900 (an 8.5 percent decrease) from September 2019 to September 2020 compared to the U.S. annual loss of 9,648,000 jobs (a 6.4 percent decrease), the EDD reported.
On the agriculture side, the number of jobs increased by 2,000 from August 2020 to 328,800 jobs in September. The agricultural industry has lost 96,600 farm jobs since September 2019.
Seven of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs last month.
Leisure and hospitality (+48,400) had the largest job gain after experiencing the largest month-over loss in August thanks to large growth in accommodation and food services. The state said month-over growth in trade, transportation and utilities (+30,600) was aided by gains in Retail Trade – specifically Clothing and Clothing Accessory Stores.
The EDD said government (-14,300) posted the largest industry job loss in September with losses in federal government largely due to losses in census worker employment driving the sector’s numbers down.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, EDD said there were 2,801,538 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the September 2020 sample week. That compares to 2,837,209 people in August 2020 and 281,060 people in September 2019.
Concurrently, 226,272 initial claims were processed in the September 2020 sample week, which was a month-over increase of 29,417 claims from August 2020 and a year-over increase of 190,944 claims from September 2019, the EDD reported.
The EDD also said that it has processed 15.2 million claims – about four times the number of claims processed in the worst year of the Great Recession (3.8 million in 2010) – over the past seven months, with total wage replacement relief totaling $105 billion paid since March.
Email Elizabeth Larson at